Life around the best MiLB ballpark in the country, AutoZone Park. Home of the Memphis Redbirds!

Weekend update with Jordan Johnson

Hell-o everyone, it is now my turn to introduce myself. I am Jordan Johnson (the blonde second from the right in the group photo) and the Redbirds’ new Communications intern. I’m very excited to be here and ready to be one of the two interns maintaining this
blog. Go Redbirds! :)

Some background information on me…well, I spent 22 out of the 23 years of my life in Michigan, living in Farmington Hills for most of it. I attended Michigan State University, graduating in 2008 with a B.A. in Communication. During college, I worked for the MSU sports broadcasting company, Spartan Vision, where I was able to work with 23 different varsity sports and get a feel for which sport I wanted to end up in. After graduation, I moved out to New Jersey where I worked last season with the Camden Riversharks Independent Baseball team. Born and raised a Detroit Red Wings fan, it came as a shock to me when I developed a love for baseball. And that’s how I ended up here…or at least after the grueling interviews and lightning round questions the boss put me through!

On to the weekend update:

(The gang is all here!)

(View from our $5 dollar seats)

The Grizzlies vs. Thunder game was a success and confirmed that the Memphis Redbirds interns are officially the Grizzlies’ good luck charm. It was a pretty intense game with an end score of 86-84 with Rudy Gay making the winning basket with 1.3 seconds left on the clock. Gay began to pound his chest after which I must say, looked like it hurt, but the crowd loved it. The atmosphere was perfect and a great experience overall. Two of our full-timers (Mark and Harrison) even had a surprise planned for us between the 3rd and 4th quarters: they participated in the sumo wrestling promotion, Grizz’s Power Ball, and certainly took quite a beating…to say the least. But, Mark prevailed over Harrison successfully placing more balls in the trash can while fighting against Grizz as goal tender. Slight injuries were endured, but fun was had all around. A few of the interns are even attending the Grizzlies-Orlando game tonight. We’ll see if they can bring the same luck for the Grizzlies as the group did Friday night.

(Harrison accepting his defeat)

(Grizzlies win!)

As for the Mississippi RiverKings game, which coming from someone who has seen many NHL and AHL games, it was surprisingly amusing. I’ve never seen so many fights in such a short amount of time! Six fights overall, five of them being within the last minute of play in a 30-second span of time. It almost seemed as if they were joking when one after another, they just kept fighting! Apparently this is common in the CHL, especially when the score is 5-1 with the RiverKings winning. On top of this, they even gave a shotgun away at the game…something I have never experienced. Maybe because I’m from Michigan, but who knows. To add to the excitement, we were hoping to be able to participate in the post-game skate, but were unfortunately late in signing up. On that note, we’re looking to make another trip to the Desoto Civic Center in a couple weeks for 80’s night!

(Desoto Civic Center)

If you have any questions, likes or gripes about the blog- feel free to e-mail me and let me know at jordan.johnson@memphisredbirds.com. I hope you enjoyed reading about our eventful weekend as much as we enjoyed experiencing it. Until next time, you stay classy Redbird fans.

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.